Row over life term for toll evasion

The brother of a farmer sentenced to life in prison in central China for evading road tolls has turned himself in to police, an official said, in a case that triggered a massive public outcry over the heavy punishment.

A court in Henan province sentenced farmer Shi Jianfeng to life imprisonment last month for fraud for avoiding road tolls that added up to more than 3.68 million yuan (£352,000).

But the court announced a retrial on Friday after news of the verdict triggered an uproar among Chinese.

On Saturday night, Shi’s younger brother Shi Junfeng went to the public security bureau of Wuliang township in Henan to say his elder brother had taken the blame for him, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

A duty officer at the security bureau confirmed Shi Junfeng had turned himself in but said he did not know the details of the case.

Shi Junfeng said he had offered bribes to officials following his brother’s detention and was promised that he would be released soon, Xinhua reported, citing police head Wang Xucan.

Shi, the farmer, was convicted of mounting fake military license plates on his two trucks to avoid paying tolls more than 2,300 times between May 2008 and January 2009 while he ran a business transporting gravel.

Military vehicles do not have to pay road tolls. In addition to the life prison sentence, he was fined two million yuan (£191,000).

Chinese internet users argued in online postings and commentaries that shorter sentences were given out for the more serious crimes of rape and murder.

The public outrage was so loud that the Pingdingshan Municipal Intermediate People’s Court held a news conference to announce the retrial, with a court official saying the verdict may change because the defendant indicated he had accomplices, Xinhua said.